HTC have revealed that their upcoming phones running Microsoft"s yet-to-be-released Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system will run an adapted version of their overlay user interface, dubbed "Sense".
Microsoft have been eager from the outset to maintain a much more controlled environment around Windows Phone 7 (WP7) devices and what manufacturers can and cannot do, in a bid to stop fragmentation, standardize features and maintain a unified user experience across the potential myriad of WP7 devices.
But it seems HTC is seeking to buck the trend, announcing over the weekend its intentions to bring a modified version of Sense, HTC"s either much loved or much hated user experience it adds onto all of its phones running Google Android or Windows Mobile 6.
“Microsoft has taken firmer control of the core experience [in Windows Phone 7], but we can still innovate,” Drew Bamford, Head of HTC’s User Experience Design Team reportedly told Forbes.
While he maintains that the experience of Sense won"t be the same as it currently is on Microsoft"s Windows Mobile 6, where the interface replaces much of the default Windows Mobile style, he says the new Sense experience will help "augment" the experience of Windows Phone 7.
“We won"t be able to replace as much of the core Windows Phone experience, but we will augment it,” he said.
Bamford also told Forbes HTC has plans to improve "discovering and sharing [of] media--music, video, mobile applications and books--easier" as well as improving syncing capabilities with cloud services.